


We can dive down deeper instead

by MintQueenJo



Series: Kinktober 2019 [7]
Category: The Folk of the Air - Holly Black
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Kinktober, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Secret Relationship, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-09 12:04:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20994524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MintQueenJo/pseuds/MintQueenJo
Summary: Any person who won the hand of the new ruler would have the whole kingdom and the surrounding villages at their feet. As for the auburn headed almost she-witch in front of him, Cardan would give up everything for a taste of her lips, for a touch of her skin on his. She fixed her brown eyes on him as the flush rose more, anger clear in her gaze at the embarrassing comment he had made in passing — he hated that he wanted her so much.





	1. We can dive down deeper instead

**Author's Note:**

> This is late and will probably be multichaptered with some of the other kinktober days. or I may go back and make it a different story after october.
> 
> Day 7: Crying, humiliation

He loved the hot flush that spread up her neck as she stared at the wall behind his head, he loved the way her chest rose and fell as the crowd around them sniggered behind their hands. The group of ladies that had surrounded the young prince as he was strolling through the palace gardens laughed openly, the many colors of their dresses plus the heavy cloud of perfume gave him a headache. Every eligible man and woman was in the kingdom to win a hand of any of the royal children, especially since the king was old and frail and would pick a successor soon.

Any person who won the hand of the new ruler would have the whole kingdom and the surrounding villages at their feet. As for the auburn headed almost she-witch in front of him, Cardan would give up everything for a taste of her lips, for a touch of her skin on his. She fixed her brown eyes on him as the flush rose more, anger clear in her gaze at the embarrassing comment he had made in passing — he hated that he wanted her so much. Jude Duarte wasn’t anything special he once told himself when her family first appeared in his father’s court. She was the young ward of Madoc a general in his father’s army, her and her twin sister Taryn, her elder sister Vivienne was Madoc’s blood daughter. What Cardan knew was that while very young a war broke out — though it didn’t last long — it swept the little village Jude’s family was in, her mother and father were lost in the fighting when a small group of soldiers broke in.

No one knew if they were for or against the king honestly, but because Vivienne was Madoc’s before Eva Duarte had fallen in love and run away with Jude’s father, he had taken the eldest Duarte in. By love and respect for his former wife he also took the younger girls into his home.

So while raised in the courts for ten years, Cardan knew that the life of dresses and fancy jewelry never took her by storm like it did her twin. No, Jude wanted to fight. That made Cardan even more stricken with her, her plain beauty and her spirit. As much as he wished to have her, he also wished to want one of the other court ladies — he knew his father wanted a union fast. A union between the neighboring kingdom’s princess, Nicasia, was what his father wanted. Queen Orlagh would make for a powerful and worthy ally. Cardan should want Nicasia with hair so black it looked blue, eyes that looked like the ocean itself was trapped in the orbs. The only complaint was that she was so slender, her hips didn’t look to be of child bearing quality.

He didn’t care because he wasn’t infatuated or intrigued by the slender pale want-to-be bride, but that didn’t stop the princess from trying. Even now as she hurled an insult about Jude’s lower class birth and that she should bow and lick Cardan’s boots for being able to even cast her gaze upon his face. Something the other woman wouldn’t do.

Therefore, when bathing in the bathhouse Nicasia had paid for a few of the other “suitors’” maids to take Jude’s clothes while bathing, they were to claim they thought it was one of the other girl’s clothes and they were being helpful, that they thought the bath was empty. Now with her clothes missing, Jude couldn’t stay in the bathhouse for long, not when the men were to use it soon.

Chancing the fact that no one would be in the garden at that time it was a quick walk to a back door where she could get help, if lucky it would be the elderly woman — Tatterfell — who had raised Jude and her sisters into adulthood.

Luck wasn’t what she had that day.

No, not when Nicasia, knowing what Jude would attempt to do, begged Cardan and some of the other ladies that it was a beautiful day to take a stroll. And like planned there was Jude — with soaking wet hair and trying her best to cover herself with her hands — tears leaked hotly from her eyes when Cardan accidentally landed the next blow. He didn’t mean to in all honesty but he made a comment about Jude’s state of dress or lack of. That started the quips from the ladies about how she was too poor to be properly dressed.

The comments on her brazenness to walk through the gardens as such, and who was she off to go see. Nicasia didn’t mean to just embarrass her, she meant to destroy her. Her reputation as a marriageable woman — a whore, no one in the court would want to be associated with her by marriage, or to let her be a knight for them.

And Jude knew it as she stared from the pale woman to him, fury evident to him. He couldn’t stop his feet as he removed his cloak and wrapped her in it. “Leave.” He didn’t look at the group as they left, “you too.” He grit out, much to the indignant look on her face, she abruptly turned and stormed back to the entrance from which they had come out. He placed a hand on the small of Jude’s back and led her to an alcove and there was a door he guided her through.

Jude jumped when she realized the room that all those halls and stairs took her to, she was so out of it. Her face burned as she turned to face him and Cardan’s dark eyes moved across her cloaked form.

“Can’t help getting into trouble, Jude?” He repeated the question that had started the nitpicking of the gaggling girls.

She bared her teeth and stared him in his dark eyes before lifting her hands to push the covering from her shoulders, damp hair cold to the touch on her shoulders. His eyes roamed over her and her mouth upturned into a smile — a wicked one.

“Don’t you like trouble?” She quipped back remembering that not just a fortnight ago he had called her dangerous after she had nearly sliced him to bits.

“I do.” He cupped her face, eye searching before bending to claim her mouth in a hot deep kiss, she clung to him then. His hands slid to her hair, letting the damp strands wind between his fingers. Her lips moved against his as her fingers slid from his shoulders to the buttons of his jacket and they parted to remove his tunic. A pale hand reached behind him to pull his white ruffled shirt over his head, her tan fingers worked on his belt. They both bent when he freed himself from his boots, and then his pants.

Jude smiled again as she wrapped her hand around his hardening length, “as they were laughing all I could think about was me sneaking into your chambers later on tonight — just to deny you the pleasure of your own release as I took mine from you.” A firm squeeze as he gave a breathy chuckle behind a wicked and handsome crooked smile of his own.

“If I would have known, I would have made the insult worth it, dear Jude.” He backed them up until she hit the desk against the wall. He grabbed her an hoisted her onto the surface before dropping to his knees. With a thigh on either shoulder he gave her a long slow lick of his tongue only stopping to pull her clit into his mouth to suck on it slowly and forcefully.

A heel dug into his shoulder as she leant backwards to rest as his tongue wandered down to her opening, pushin inside her to taste her wetness. Cardan the second time had called it better than nectar, believing that she was crafted by the gods to tempt him so. A hand rested on the back of his head tugging slightly so he’d look up at her, up at the sight of her breasts, nipples hard and parted lips as she panted with another probe of his tongue. His dark eyes took in every detail as he abused her clit, teeth and tongue causing her to bite her lip and let her head roll back. Jude nearly hit her head on the wall hard enough to knock her out, or hard enough she would have bitten through her lip. Her hand in his hair pushed him farther against her. He moaned then, rising from his kneeling position to wink at her.

She pulled her legs back, resting them apart so he could watch as her fingers rubbed her clit before pressing into her, she huffed at the wet noises leaving her as her own fingers thrust inside her. She’s dripping, his eyes follow every movement before his hand shoots out to slow hers down before pulling it away by her wrist. He shuffles closer to take the digits into his mouth letting his tongue clean her of every drop of her. They slowly fall one by one as he pulls Jude close.

“Cardan,” she waited, he didn’t make her wait for long as he pushed into her, slower than she wanted. Once fully seated inside her a moment — a look — passed between them both. “Move.”

He bent down to bite her shoulder, leaving a perfect circle of broken skin in the shape of his teeth there. He pulled his hips back before rolling forward, she whispered his name at each slide in. She had an arm thrown around his neck to hold him close, nails digging into the skin of his back right above his shoulder as her other hand cupped his face, stroking his cheekbone with her thumb. Cardan’s mouth was close to Jude’s as he bent over her, and with each thrust his parted lips met hers in partial kiss, a hand rested on the small of her back as the other supported him on the top of the desk. He bit her again as he thrusted harder at her command to do so, her hand pulling his face up to hers in a heated kiss. He groaned when he felt her walls tighten around him with her release, her hand fell to his shoulder as their lips moved together.

He pulled out leaving just the tip of his length in before snapping his hips against hers, Jude moaned sharply as he repeated the movement over and over. His name was panted in the space between them before he looked into her eyes and whispered, “Jude.”

She felt his release fill her when he stiffened.

After a few minutes of staying wound around him Jude finally unwrapped her legs and arms. She didn’t look at the prince as she stared around the room — not caring that his seed was running down her thighs as she remembered why she was in his chambers to begin with.

“So we never did solve my state of dress.” She raised a brow at him, ignoring how his eyes searching over her made her skin start to burn again.

“Right,” he pressed against her, his skin smooth. Every hard plain of him hard against every soft curve of her. “Would you like to stay in my bed tonight, it would please me if it’ll please you?”

The hesitant nod brought a smile to his face as he took one of her tan hands in his and pulled her towards his bed.


	2. Play me 'till the sun rises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I hate you, Cardan Greenbriar,” the words were spat with such venom that he couldn’t stop the burning in his eyes. “Dammit, I curse you. I curse her, both of you. Your wedding, your union, your children.” Another swing of the blade and he doesn’t bother to stop her this time either. It cuts open the front of his tunic and shirt, he just smiles a faint little line of his lips. He would let her be mad, he deserved it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is all so late I'll hopefully get caught up.
> 
> Day 8. Blood, Angry Sex, Sadism/Masochism

She was angry, angrier than normal.

The sword made a thud as she embedded it into the bark of the tree she was practising with. The blade rang with the vibration and with a foot placed against the wood she pulled on the hilt. It wouldn’t budge and she kicked the ground. She should head back the sun was almost fully set, the air grew chilly in the mid-autumn air. Turning to walk away she froze, chest rising and falling from the sword play she did earlier.

Cardan stood there hands up, “Jude.”

“Don’t,” she hissed the scene of Nicasia flashing through her mind, a circlet on her head entwined with gems, Cardan’s ring flashing on her finger. The princess gathered much attention over it, would she be Cardan’s betrothed?

What made the young woman angrier is that not a week before had he taken her over to the little birch bridge that connected the woods at the east end to the castle grounds. Cardan had taken both of her hands in his and looked her in the eyes, “Jude Duarte, will you be my intended?”

It shocked her through to her very core when he slid his gold band over her ring finger. The next day after Nicasia had attacked another court lady for looking his way to long Jude thought it best to not wear the ring around her. Even now as she stared at him, standing in the last of the light in an emerald green tunic, dark eyes unreadable.

She bared her teeth and stomped towards him, hissing as she moved. “You don’t get to say my name like that! You don't get to stand there and act like you’re the victim! You don’t get to—,” she unbuttoned her own tunic, and ignored the low groan from him as the tops of her breasts were exposed. She ignored him as she wrapped a fist around the ring on the chain around her neck and pulled. The metal gave way easily as she pulled her arm back and tossed it at his chest. He fumbled to catch the gold band as she continued past him. He shot upright in a flash and moved to grab her. The sting hit him so quickly, Jude pulled her hand back and struck his cheek again. Cardan’s head turned with the force of it, he felt the salty liquid start to fill his mouth when he punctured the inside of his cheek with his teeth. She was so beautiful to him, walnut eyes on fire as she grit her teeth.

“Do not touch me.” One step back and he smiled, a little trail of spit and blood leaking from the corner of his mouth. He grabbed her shoulders unkindly and pulled her to him for a harsh kiss. She struggled before biting down on his bottom lip, the salty liquid of his blood filling her mouth.

Cardan came up for air, bottom half of his face smeared with some blood. Jude pulled out of his grasp turning once more — which he was obviously displeased with — his hand shot out again and quickly, quicker than he could properly get out of the way, she sliced up his forearm with a dagger in her hand. He hissed and she had gone pale,  _ oh no. _

“Cardan,” she had gone quiet as his eyes assessed his wound and the dagger.

“You may be frightening with your little knife, Jude, and you can wound me over and over. God knows I deserve every bit of it for the way I have made you feel. And I won’t act like I don’t know what is going on with us and with Nicasia—” he couldn’t get any more words out because Jude saw red. She no longer cared about the consequences of being hung — or beheaded — for harming the youngest prince.

No, a death sentence meant nothing as she swung the dagger at him. He held his injured arm up, not to stop her, but to keep her from slicing his face. The gash opened across his palm and he hissed too focused to see the foot lift. The blow to his stomach from her kick made him double with his bleeding arm still up. She just prayed that death would be quick for her.

“I hate you, Cardan Greenbriar,” the words were spat with such venom that he couldn’t stop the burning in his eyes. “Dammit, I curse you. I curse her, both of you. Your wedding, your union, your children.” Another swing of the blade and he doesn’t bother to stop her this time either. It cuts open the front of his tunic and shirt, he just smiles a faint little line of his lips. He would let her be mad, he deserved it.

Cardan was still — she realized.

Her eyes were burning and she couldn’t see when she swung again— and this time —this time the knife fell as a red line spread across the prince’s pale face. The blood started to bead down his cheek, he kept his head turned to not look at her.

“I know you’re not done.” He whispered, arms stiff by his sides. “I deserve it, Jude,  _ please. _ ”

She crossed her arms and shook her head. “I hate you. You are a liar and a thief.” She spat at him and he sighed, a broken noise that he didn’t know he was capable of. 

“Jude, I lo—” he never got to finish, she had tackled him to the ground completely ignoring his blood coating the sleeves of her own tunic and as he came up to keep her at a distance— her fists at a distance —the skin of her chest was also covered. In her heated rage she forgot that she had left her tunic halfway unbuttoned. Cardan was leaving bloody handprints on her from his wounded hand, trying to get her to stop. She ignored the stinging in her own palm as she laid open handed blow after blow. Hitting anywhere on his face she could as he tried even harder to get her to stop.

“Jude, please. Please listen I—”

“No,” she roared at him. “You don’t get to say that. Not to me anymore. I hate you, and I hope you’re happy with her. I hope you get everything you deserve in this life and the next.” Dark eyes looked up at her, tears leaking hotly from the corners as her own rolled down her face. Cardan had a busted lip and he pulled it into his mouth to taste the blood there. She was shaking from where she sat on his lap, she didn’t speak as he leaned himself up into his elbows.

Didn’t as he winced at the cuts on him, at his stinging face.

Finally her lips parted and the tiniest of volume formed words. “Why her? Why do this to me?”

They stared at each other unsure who should speak, or if they should go, and Jude finally clear headed enough bowed hers. With the state he was in death was her future. Her fate. Her downfall.

“I didn’t do anything to you. At least not intentionally,” he finally let words come from his swollen mouth. How would he make her understand when he himself had barely understood it.

Her brown eyes looked off as if she saw nothing and everything at once. Then her gaze snapped back to him a frantic fury there as her hands grabbed his good one to place it on a breast. As her hands lifted herself up enough to get her pants down and one leg free. As his injured hand freed himself from his own pants. He aligned himself with her entrance as her fingers twist into his ruined white shirt. She slowly sunk down on him, a groan leaving them both as she rose up and slammed back down.

A string of curses left her as she rolled her hips, his good hand moved to single handedly unbutton the rest of her tunic, failing at that he sat up. As he undressed her there on the cold ground she cupped his face and kissed him, the saltiness of his blood passing between their mouths. His ruined clothes were pulled off him, or well he ripped his shirt the rest of the way.

Hands now on her hips he helped her move against him, her moan loud and long as they moved together. “Jude, dear Jude.” His hands smooth up her back as they rock together, “I love you, you may not believe me but I do, I want only you, just you.” His lips pepper kisses everywhere he can, she tightens around him. He smiles up at her and Jude grabs the back of his head to pull it back painfully, her teeth grit as she continues to bounce. She keeps his head pulled back as she rolls hers to look at the stars.

“Don’t tell me that,” she stiffens as she comes. Cardan goes to pull her close when she’s moving off him, he stares at her naked back.

“Jude.” He frowns, “I didn’t ask anyone but you. I gave you my ring for I only want you.” He’s up grabbing her she turns to strike him again and he grabs her wrists and wrestles her to the ground. He grabs her thighs, fingers digging into the skin there, as he parts them so he can slide into her. She tries to push him off her, tears running down her face even more.

“You don’t get to. You don’t get to finish!” She clung to him as he thrust wildly into her. “You’re a liar.”

“I didn’t lie, Jude. Not to you. I never asked Nicasia, only you!” She pulled him closer as she came again, face pressed to his shoulder as she cried, the smell of blood on him. “It would hurt me to lie to you.”

Nails dug into his back, into her thighs, as they continued to move, “you’re a horrible thief.”

He laughed then, laughed at that. “How so?” Cardan pulled away enough to make Jude look at him. Her breath caught at the sight of his dark hair having a cast from the moon, it seemed like the stars were in his black eyes as he smiled at her.

She let go of his back to cup his face, “you stole my heart.”

“I did. I am a thief. And in return, so are you.” He kissed her deeply then fucking into her until they’re both spent, he lay head against her chest. “I only want to court you, Jude Duarte.”

Her fingers touched the cut on his cheek, “I’ll be killed.”

He took her hand in his to kiss her palm then her wrist, “not at all dear, Jude. I’ll see to that.”

The young prince and his betrothed walked in a state of half undressed down the hidden passages of the castle. They made it to the prince’s personal bath chamber only for Cardan to take her there again, and once more once clean and on the way to the bed. He took her on the floor and in the bed itself, promises of talking to Nicasia and his father in the morning lulling her to sleep.


End file.
